Articles

January 30, 2014

DATA CENTER

Delivering True Elasticity in Virtual Workspace Scale

2 min read

You may have caught this week’s announcement from Citrix on the availability of XenDesktop 7.5 (see announcement here).  With this release, desktop virtualization implementers can tap into new elasticity and efficiencies of provisioning, managing, and scaling-up/down their deployments in real time, while also tapping into the simplicity and performance of Windows app delivery with XenApp […]

January 10, 2014

DATA CENTER

Your Workspace – Your Way

4 min read

As you may have seen in the announcement on December 17th, Cisco along with its partners Citrix and Desktone by VMware, are announcing our joint solutions for Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS).  Clearly our customers demand choice and flexibility in how they choose to implement desktop virtualization, not just in terms of the delivery technology, but also in […]

December 11, 2013

DATA CENTER

Accelerating the Performance of Graphics-Intensive VDI

1 min read

The VDI landscape is increasingly evolving to embrace virtual desktops that look, perform, and respond like their physical predecessors.  Whether it’s application responsiveness with low latency across the network, or high-performance storage with expansive IOPS capacity that mirrors  the native experience on one’s desktop/laptop, implementers and users expect their virtual desktops to behave akin to […]

October 23, 2013

DATA CENTER

VDI at VMworld Barcelona, Co-opetition, Taio Cruz, and Tumblers

3 min read

I just got back from another blockbuster of an event that was VMworld Barcelona.  If you’re VMworld Alumni, you know the drill – long days turn into nights, meetings, convention hall food, and before you know it, you’re at the customer reception and Taio Cruz is there.  I also scored a really nice plastic tumbler […]

September 10, 2013

DATA CENTER

VDI Roundup: Cisco and VMware – Better Together

1 min read

It’s a beautiful thing when you can hijack four not-quite random people off the VMworld show floor and get them to tackle a discussion on desktop virtualization.  And that’s exactly what we did a couple weeks back, when the opportunity presented itself.  With Courtney Burry (VMware), Mike Brennan (Cisco), Dave Kinsman (WWT) and myself on […]

August 19, 2013

DATA CENTER

Your VDI Checklist for VMworld 2013

5 min read

With just a week ahead of VMworld 2013 in San Francisco, there’s a lot of planning to do.  For example: Saying “thank goodness it’s not Vegas” Finding a suitable bacon-themed party to attend (I’ll explain) Checking out some useful VDI content at VMworld So if you’re earning your trip to SF by doing some VDI […]

June 10, 2013

DATA CENTER

Don’t Take Your Eyes off VDI – We’re Certainly Not!

3 min read

This blog post promises to avoid telling you about all the fantabulous (I know that’s not a word) growth expected in the number of hosted virtual desktops to be deployed by 2016.  What I do want to share, is how Cisco is ramping up our investments in accelerating your path to virtual desktop success, and […]

June 10, 2013

DATA CENTER

Wristwatches, Bicycle Helmets, and VDI…

2 min read

A long time ago, it used to be comforting, to hear the words “One Size Fits All”.  As though our interests were surely represented within that catch-all, assuring us that we weren’t going to get left out in the rain.  You could safely make that impulse-driven purchase, bring it home (or have it delivered), and […]

April 29, 2013

DATA CENTER

And now, the Conclusion! VDI – The Questions You Didn’t Ask (But Really Should)

4 min read

Back in January we launched a blogging series (with the above title) exploring the various server design parameters that impact VDI performance and scalability.  Led by Shawn Kaiser, Doron Chosnek and Jason Marchesano, we’ve been exploring the impact of things like CPU core count, core speed, vCPU, SPECInt, memory density, IOPS and more.  If you’re […]

April 19, 2013

DATA CENTER

Webinar: Eliminating the Guesswork with Optimized Architectures for VDI

1 min read

I’m excited to mention that next week I’m hosting a webinar on BrightTalk, with my guest Ashok Rajagopalan, from Cisco’s UCS Product Management Team.  You guessed it, we’ll be talking VDI, but more specifically, we’ll be exploring a new portfolio of architectures that are expanding the breadth of use cases and IT environments into which […]

February 21, 2013

DATA CENTER

Cisco and VMware Teaming-Up to Accelerate VDI Uptake in 2013 – Join us at VMware Partner Exchange to Find Out More

Are you a Cisco/VMware partner going to VMware Partner Exchange (PEX)?  In Vegas!  Next week!  If so, and you’re focused on growing your VDI practice, there’s some great content for you to take in while there.  Before I get into PEX, let me remind you about our on-going blog series, “VDI –  The Questions You […]

January 25, 2013

DATA CENTER

VDI – The Questions You Didn’t Ask (But Really Should)

4 min read

There’s no shortage of content out there (a quick Google search easily confirms this) when it comes to looking for vendor-originated material touting the latest server performance benchmarks for hosted virtual desktops.  Being part of that community, I’m pretty sure I have my fingerprints on more than one such piece of collateral – and I’m […]